Bill calls for checks on school workers

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2007 at 1:59 PM

The Ohio Senate took its first steps yesterday toward dealing with the issue of unreported teacher misconduct, as a key committee voted to beef up background checks for school employees and create a new teachers code of conduct.

The Ohio Senate took its first steps yesterday toward dealing with the issue of unreported teacher misconduct, as a key committee voted to beef up background checks for school employees and create a new teachers code of conduct.

Current law limits criminal-background checks to employees such as teachers, administrators and counselors, and limits those checks to crimes committed in Ohio, unless the person has lived in Ohio fewer than five years.

But under a bill that likely will get a full Senate vote today, all employees, including cafeteria workers, janitors and office assistants, would need a background check every five years. And those checks also would have to be run through a national FBI database.

"This is just a starting point," said Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Dayton.

Senate Republican leaders agreed, saying they are taking action on a handful of items this week as a buildup to a broader teacher-misconduct bill that will be developed next year.

"This is serious stuff," said Sen. Joy Padgett, a Coshocton Republican and head of the Senate Education Committee. "Some kids come to school and that's where they feel the safest the whole day. I want to get rid of anybody who is not living up to that."

Reacting to a Dispatch investigation into the failures of Ohio's teacher-discipline system, committee members also unanimously voted to require the Ohio Department of Education to develop a teachers code of conduct, and to recommend how to punish districts, administrators or others who fail to properly report teacher misconduct.

Sen. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, said many opinions on the punishment issue must be resolved. Is a district penalized or individual personnel? If people outside the district fail to report known abuse, should they be punished? Should punishment be fines only, or criminal penalties?

"There are a lot of questions about specifically what the penalties ought to be," Gard- ner said. "This is a proactive, modest first step to begin addressing this issue."

The bill also would give the Ohio Department of Education new power to revoke an expired teacher's license -- which Gardner said was likely an oversight when the law was first written.

"If someone has an expired license and commits a crime, we don't have the opportunity to revoke it," said Jeannette Oxender, chief of staff for the Education Department. "That person can go to another state and reapply for a license."

The department asked for most of the proposals approved yesterday. "This gives us more tools to do what we need to do," Oxender said.

She said the code of conduct will be structured similarly to those in place for doctors and attorneys. The legislature, she said, will have to develop penalties for teachers who violate the code.

The House Education Committee yesterday held a third and final day of testimony on teacher misconduct issues. After reviewing the information, the House should have a game plan by the end of the week, said Rep. Arlene J. Setzer, R-Vandalia, chairwoman of the committee.

"We don't want to duplicate. We don't want to tear down," she said.

A lot of the problem, Setzer said, is that a new law designed to improve teacher-misconduct reporting, which took effect March 30, hasn't had time to work.

"Even thought the department has collected data, they haven't had that much time to collect a lot and compare it to a period of years," she said. "I think we've already had good results with House Bill 79."

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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